Please note: we have been online over ten years, and we want The Trek BBS to continue as a free site. But if you block our ads we are at risk.Please consider unblocking ads for this site - every ad you view counts and helps us pay for the bandwidth that you are using. Thank you for your understanding.

Welcome! The Trek BBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans. Please login to see our full range of forums as well as the ability to send and receive private messages, track your favourite topics and of course join in the discussions.

If you are a new visitor, join us for free. If you are an existing member please login below. Note: for members who joined under our old messageboard system, please login with your display name not your login name.

Re: A New Star Trek Show Will Need a Stronger Focus on Characterizatio

No, this is factually wrong.
Sulu is the one who never got anything to do or say besides "yes sir, Warp 5" and fighting in "Naked Time" before TUC whereas Mayweather got a scene in the pilot (the "sweet spot") and two Travis episodes. I know nothing about Sulu whereas Mayweather has an actual biography, a background before he served on the NX-01.

__________________
The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer. - former US Secretary of State and unconvicted war criminal Henry Kissinger

Re: A New Star Trek Show Will Need a Stronger Focus on Characterizatio

horatio83 wrote:

No. Sulu is the one who never got anything to do or say besides "yes sir, Warp 5" and fighting in "Naked Time" before TUC whereas Mayweather got a scene in the pilot (the "sweet spot") and two Travis episodes. He probably got on average far more than twice the amount of Sulu's lines.

Not even remotely.

During TOS, we learned that Sulu was a fencer, that he was into classic literature, and had a bit of a sarcastic side to him.

What can be said about Mayweather other than he's rather bland?

__________________"Don't sweat the small stuff--it makes you small-minded..."

Re: A New Star Trek Show Will Need a Stronger Focus on Characterizatio

Ehm, once again no. Mayweather has far more screen time than Sulu. He has two character episodes while Sulu has none.

What is bland about having been born in space, grown up on a cargo ship and now serving on the first Starfleet vessel which explores deep space while you are the only one on it who has actually some (admittedly not so deep) space experience?
If you take the mere character setup and ignore the actual performances Mayweather is easily the most interesting human character on the show. But, alas, the guy couldn't act whereas e.g. Trinneer or Keating made far more out of characters which were at least conceptually (a relaxed Southern boy and a stiff Brit) less interesting.

We can also compare Uhura and Sato. Would you seriously claim that the latter character ho got more to say than "hailing frequencies open sir" is actually better? Do you seriously wanna go on claiming that ALL characters in VOY and ENT are flat while denying that TOS featured two undeveloped characters, Uhura and Sulu who got virtually no screen time or background? Hell, one of them didn't even get a first name in the show!

By the way, I don't wanna claim that all of this makes ENT kick ass and TOS suck. My point is rather that TOS worked despite of its abysmal non-troika major characters. Perhaps it actually worked because it only focused upon three instead of seven or more?

__________________
The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer. - former US Secretary of State and unconvicted war criminal Henry Kissinger

Re: A New Star Trek Show Will Need a Stronger Focus on Characterizatio

Ridiculous. We are not talking, as before, about something highly intricate and subjective like whether the character or writers are to blame. This is objective, factual stuff like how much screen time a character got and no matter how much you lie, Mayweather had two character episodes (Fortunate Son and Horizon), a little bit to do in the pilot and the ending plus all the just sitting at the helm stuff whereas Sulu had the sitting and the helm stuff plus one scene in Naked Time.

But hey, perhaps I am missing all those Sulu character episodes in which the spotlight was on him. Care to point them out? And gee, perhaps I also missed Sulu's enormous character setup, his biography. Would you mind to point it out?

Anyway, it is funny to see how far you gotta bend backwards and make shit up to defend your ridiculous "ALL ENT and VOY characters are flat" nonsense. Although I frankly admit that TOS is my least favourite series I try to be fair and actually point out e.g. the benefits of what might seem like a disadvantage, four underdeveloped and underused secondary main character.

__________________
The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer. - former US Secretary of State and unconvicted war criminal Henry Kissinger

Re: A New Star Trek Show Will Need a Stronger Focus on Characterizatio

Travis certainly had more featured episodes than Sulu ever got -- by my count, two, whereas Sulu had zero. Having said that, during episodes which did not center upon Travis, his character often receded so far into the background that the only difference between him and an extra was main title billing. Sulu often got little moments that helped define his character in a way that Travis never did -- especially in the third and four seasons of Enterprise, when he often didn't even have a speaking role.

I suppose you could blame this on Anthony Montgomery's acting -- except that he's been far better and more interesting in other roles on other shows (and in movies). This leads me to believe that the writing staff didn't know how to develop the character.

Re: A New Star Trek Show Will Need a Stronger Focus on Characterizatio

Harvey wrote:

Travis certainly had more featured episodes than Sulu ever got -- by my count, two, whereas Sulu had zero. Having said that, during episodes which did not center upon Travis, his character often receded so far into the background that the only difference between him and an extra was main title billing. Sulu often got little moments that helped define his character in a way that Travis never did -- especially in the third and four seasons of Enterprise, when he often didn't even have a speaking role.

I suppose you could blame this on Anthony Montgomery's acting -- except that he's been far better and more interesting in other roles on other shows (and in movies). This leads me to believe that the writing staff didn't know how to develop the character.

Exactly. Heck, I thought Mongtomery could even have played a decent captain. He's actually was capable of generating more fire than Bakula was as Archer.

__________________"Don't sweat the small stuff--it makes you small-minded..."

Re: A New Star Trek Show Will Need a Stronger Focus on Characterizatio

So you do indeed live in another universe. In THIS universe there are no Sulu episodes. There are a few character moments but they don't amount to even roughly sketching out this character ... which is less than Mayweather got.

By the way, my point is not that Mayweather is a better character just because he has more screen time and a better character setup. I like Sulu more.

It shouldn't be that hard to separate facts and opinions, not even when you have strong opinions and loathe e.g. all the characters on a show.

__________________
The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer. - former US Secretary of State and unconvicted war criminal Henry Kissinger

Re: A New Star Trek Show Will Need a Stronger Focus on Characterizatio

horatio83 wrote:

So you do indeed live in another universe. In THIS universe there are no Sulu episodes.

What is this, grade school stuff?

There are a few character moments but they don't amount to even roughly sketching out this character ... which is less than Mayweather got.

Which goes back to what I've said about Mayweather not really being much of a character. He has a background that was touched upon in a couple of episodes, but that was it. It was even downplayed fairly quickly in the series, with T'Pol becoming the most experienced space traveler on the ship. As originally written, that was Mayweather's angle. He also was supposed to be best friends with Tucker, something that was also dropped by the wayside.

By the way, my point is not that Mayweather is a better character just because he has more screen time and a better character setup.

That has been my point all along. It doesn't matter if you have more screen time and a better character set up if most of your lines are "Yes, sir" and "Aye, sir."

It shouldn't be that hard to separate facts and opinions, not even when you have strong opinions and loathe e.g. all the characters on a show.

That's actually what I've been thinking.

__________________"Don't sweat the small stuff--it makes you small-minded..."